2008 PETIT LE MANS

American Le Mans Series

Allan Mcnish doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry when he thinks back to Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in 2008. The 1000-mile round of the American Le Mans Series was the scene of one of his greatest performances, but also one of his biggest gaffes.

Mcnish claimed a thrilling victory aboard the factory Champion Audi R10 TDI he shared with Dindo Capello and Emanuele Pirro. Yet part of the reason it was quite so dramatic was that he started the race two laps behind after spinning into the wall on the way to the grid.

“It’s one I still smile about, but also one

I still cringe at,” says Mcnish. “It was a very embarrassing mistake, but it all came down to duking it out in the dark at the end.”

Two crews’ worth of Champion mechanics descended on the Audi after its driver had managed to haul the damaged car back to the pits. Despite the loss of two laps, the repaired car was back on the lead lap in the space of two hours and 20 minutes.

That was the first comeback by the winning entry in the 11th edition of Petit. A series of problems mid race delayed the car and dropped it a lap back again: there was an issue with Capello’s seat insert, then a tyre glitch rectified by an additional stop, and finally an overheating problem solved by air-hosing the radiators.

It didn’t look like Mcnish had the pace to get back on terms with the leading Peugeot 908 HDI driven by Nicolas Minassian, Stephane Sarrazin and Christian Klien, but Champion managed to haul the car onto the lead lap once more by stopping twice under the same safety car, once for fuel and once for tyres.

Mcnish was given new soft rubber with 36 laps left. He stormed past one of the LMP2 Penske Porsches, then the sister Audi, and finally caught Klien in the Peugeot. An aggressive move at

Turn 6 got the Audi into the lead, and then some defensive driving down the back straight kept it ahead before he could get out of range of a car that enjoyed a straightline speed advantage.

Mcnish eked out some breathing space, but this thriller of a race still had one final twist. One last safety car, the 11th of the proceedings, meant he had to fight a rearguard action to the flag.